U.S. and Canadian Lakewide Contaminant Monitoring Beth Murphy U.S. EPA, Great Lakes National Program Office Clarkson University Research Consortium Environment.

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Presentation on theme: "U.S. and Canadian Lakewide Contaminant Monitoring Beth Murphy U.S. EPA, Great Lakes National Program Office Clarkson University Research Consortium Environment."— Presentation transcript:

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U.S. and Canadian Lakewide Contaminant Monitoring Beth Murphy U.S. EPA, Great Lakes National Program Office Clarkson University Research Consortium Environment Canada U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office Ontario Ministry of the Environment U.S. Geological Survey NOAA

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Overview of Presentation 1.Connection between CSMI and Monitoring Programs 2.Status of contaminants monitoring in the Great Lakes Legacy contaminants Emerging contaminants 3.Overview of U.S.EPA and Environment Canada Great Lakes monitoring and surveillance programs 4.Future Directions in Emerging Contaminant Research

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Current Use Chemicals Routine monitoring of: Flame Retardants, Hg, PCDD/Fs, Musks, PFOS/A, etc. Many of these chemicals concentrations are at steady state or are declining. Method development and benchmark criteria continue to make the analysis and interpretation of some of these chemicals difficult.

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Mercury in Lake Superior Lake Trout Source: SOLEC 2011 Draft Technical report Declines observed until the early ~1990 Appears as though concentrations have been increasing. Consistent with observations in other studies in the Great Lakes Region - see Ecotoxicology 20(7)

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Organo-Phosphate Esters in Great Lakes Air TCPP: tris(2-chloro propyl) phosphate Used mostly as flame retardants and plasticizers but have many other uses Canadian Chemical Management Plan Priority compounds High volume production compounds Levels are very high for indoor air (100s ng/m 3 ) and dust (1000s ng/g). TCEP is being phased out in North America and has been banned in EU OPEs were analysed in air samples from Lake Superior 2011 and in archived air samples from Levels of  -OPEs averaged ~500pg/m 3 which is times higher than  -PBDEs. Levels were about the same in 2005 and 2011 TCEP: tris(2-chloro ethyl) phosphate TPP: tri-phenyl phosphate Atmospheric Research

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Preliminary GLSSP summary for Superior Spatial distribution based on surface sediment samples: –Sites S022 (near Duluth) and S106 (east of Keweenaw Peninsula) stand out to have much higher concentrations than other sites for target legacy pollutants (PCDD/Fs, PCBs, PCNs, DDE). –PBDEs are also higher at S022. –PFCs may exhibit a different trend – lower concentrations at S022 –Other emerging pollutants have low concentrations in general. Time trend based on core samples –Chronological resolution is limited by low sedimentation rates Research questions –Higher-than-expected concentrations of heavy (8-10 chlorines) PCBs were found and are yet to be confirmed. –Site S008 may deserve further investigation Elevated levels of soot carbon were found Previous work suggested PCB contamination at site